The development follows on an Institutional Shareholder Services recommendation last week that shareholders vote in favour of the merger transaction.

The two gold miners had announced their planned share-for-share merger a month ago in a bid to create "an industry leading gold company with the greatest concentration of Tier One assets", lowest total cash cost position and diversified asset portfolio.

Barrick's strategic partners Zijin Mining and Shandong Gold have both welcomed the proposed merger.

Shandong has said the merger would create a new leading company in the gold industry and bring Shandong new development opportunities. Zijin was "excited to unlock further opportunities in Africa".

Both Randgold (LSE: RRS) and Barrick (TSX: ABX) have seen their share prices rise since mid-September.

They each closed higher on Tuesday, with Randgold up 3.78% in London at £65.34, capitalising it over £6.17 billion, while Barrick closed up 1.57% to C$17.44 in Toronto, valuing it at $20.2 billion.